Readers' comments

The world is going through an unprecedented period, that at the one hand is worried with overpopulation of the world as a whole, yet on the other hand, in specific regions, is dealing with a demographic decline.

It seems that when scientists prescribe for less population, there is a population explosion but in certain regions now there is a de-population movement occurring and scientists are equally, if not more concerned. Yet, the situation is not black and white, the extrapolations should not be linear.

When Malthus wrote about the eventual apocalypse that would result from exponential population growth, he did not foresee the Green Revolution brought upon by the Industrial Revolution, by which more food than ever could be produced to feed an ever increasing population. Thus this is an instance in which a premature prediction was proven wrong by the advancement of technology and innovation. If population keeps expanding, will another revolution prove the doomsday predictors wrong again? Only until it happens will we be about to reflect upon it, but technology advances at an unprecedented rate, and will keep surprising people.

Likewise, demographic decline is not the end of the world, although it is extremely harmful to the continued growth of a nation. Ideally, no nation wishes to undergo such misfortune but it is not exactly a death sentence. Take for example the period of the Black Death in Europe during the Middle Ages, when half of the population died from the plague that ensued. This is by far more extreme than the current rate of demographic decline since you are not going to kill off half of the population in a span of decades. Although it took 150 to recover, by the time the recovery was underway the Renaissance had took off and we all know just how successful the subsequent period was. Thus, a total devastation of the population is not a definite death sentence but rather as history has shown, rebirth and revival is possible.

Another example of mass decline of population occurred in the interwar periods. From the beginning of WWI until the end of WWII, millions of people died as the result of mindless slaughter, but yet in the post-war era, the global economy has grown unlike any other period since the Industrial Revolution. The rate of growth and the creation of wealth is unimaginable, yet this was after the largest wars ever in the history of humanity.

Thus, complex topics such as demographics cannot be examined linearly but rather the answers and solutions are far more complex and varied.